Several items to touch on today. For starters, rapidly growing domain and hosting services company Endurance International has reached a tentative deal to buy India's largest registrar, Directi, for between $100 million and $110 million according to a report at 

DomainIncite.com today. Endurance is already known for such brands as Domain.com and HostGator.com, so Directi would fit nicely in their increasingly impressive portfolio. Endurance hopes to raise up to $400 million in a NASDAQ IPO with a about a quarter of those funds going to a Directi buy. Since the funding isn't in place yet, the deal has not yet been finalized. 

As part of the deal Endurance would help bankroll Directi division Radix Registry's attempt to win up to 26 auctions for contested new gTLD strings to the tune of $62 million. That would give them entree to the new gTLD 

registration business if the deal goes through. Directi was founded in 1998 by Bhavin Turakhia and his brother Divyank who was profiled in a 2008 DNJournal Cover Story. At that time some thought the private company could be worth up to $300 million, so Endurance may be getting a bargain if all goes as planned.

Elsewhere, domain industry pioneer Marc Ostrofsky's second book, Word of Mouse, hit store shelves today. As I told you in a preview last month, Ostrofsky's publisher, Simon & Schuster, wanted a sequel after Marc's first book (released in 2011) - Get Rich Click! - became a New York Times Best Seller.

Sub-titled 101+ Trends in How we Buy, Sell, Live, Learn, Work and Play!, Word of Mouse provides the  successful serial entrepreneur's advice to consumers and marketers who want to better understand how to leverage technology. Ostrofsky, well-known for selling Business.com in a $7.5 million transaction, has a knack for demystifying and simplifying all things tech. 

In the course of promoting his two books, Marc has taken the opportunity to explain the value of a  good domain name to Main Street businesses, making his success the industry's success as well.

One other note - while I was away on vacation last week, Donna Mahony of DomainBoardroom.com announced that the private forum is bringing back the Domainer's Choice Awards as an independent event in 2014.

Donna was involved in organizing the original Domainer's Choice Awards dinner that was held in 2008 in conjunction with the DOMAINfest Global conference that was staged in Hollywood, California that year. After a six-year absence the event will return at a time and location still to be announced (most likely in Southern California). 

The Castello Brothers (Michael and David) with Donna Mahony at the 2008 Domainer's Choice Awards ceremony in Hollywood, California where Michael and David won the Domain Ambassador Award.

Donna plans to devote proceeds from the event to a non-profit scholarship fund. You can get updates on plans for the event by getting on the Awards mailing list. There is also a Domainer's Choice Awards Facebook Page you can Like to get updates there.